


Snowed In

by KazOfScotland



Series: KCAWS 30 Days of Winter Writing 2021 [4]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: COVID-19, Christmas, Gen, M/M, Parent Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr., Parent Rafael Barba, Rafael Barba's Daughter, Set During The Coronavirus Pandemic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazOfScotland/pseuds/KazOfScotland
Summary: Rafael and Sonny are finally back together and Christmas is promising to be a family one. But due to travel restrictions and isolation periods, when their daughter gets snowed in whilst in Canada, they're Christmas plans have to change.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Series: KCAWS 30 Days of Winter Writing 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2111565
Kudos: 8
Collections: 30 Days of Winter Writing





	Snowed In

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING THIS RELATES TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. If this is a trigger do not read further.

Sonny Carisi groaned when he saw the weather forecast for Toronto, which was the closest place he could find to where his daughter was, just on the outskirts of the city. There were weather warnings for snow and ice, and from what it suggested, it was going to be bad enough to stop flights from taking off. And that was the very last thing that he wanted to read or hear. He wanted his daughter to be at home with him and Rafael. He had missed his daughter over the last few months that she had been in Canada for her dancing, but most of all he had missed being a family with her and his husband. 

He was still sitting staring at the weather forecast on his laptop when Rafael walked into their apartment. He had to admit that it felt good to refer to it as theirs again. It had been a long two years with Rafael away trying to make peace with all that happened and the fact that he had been on trial for murder. For the murder of a chidl at that, and everyone had started looking at him differently. To an extent he could understand why Rafael had run, but after being together for so long, Sonny found it difficult to understand why the older man had thought that Sonny would look at him any different than he had before the case. 

That was what had forced them apart, it was what made this Christmas all the more special. It was their first one together, as a family. Him, Rafael and Emi. Or at least that had been the plan. Emi had been going to come home, and isolate in her bed room in their apartment, and then Christmas day would be just them all together. But now with the cancellation of flights because of the weather, Emi would not make it back in time for her to isolate for the required two weeks and be allowed to socialise on Christmas day. 

Even if she could get a later flight, their Christmas was still going to have to be done over technology. And that just wasn’t what any of them wanted at all. It had been more than a year or so since they had had a Christmas that hadn’t involved some form of technology. 

“Are you okay?” Rafael’s voice pulled him out of his own head as the older man approached him. He hadn’t even realised that Rafael had returned home, and that was definitely a concern given that he used to be a Detective until not that long ago in the grand scheme of things. He was still stressed about the fact that their family Christmas was postponed, but he was happy to admit that some of the stress that he was feeling dissipated when he saw that his husband was home. 

It was a relief that he was home, it was always a relief, and had been ever since the day that Rafael had decided to leave the State in need of a fresh start. Sonny hated to admit the fact that he was so weak, especially given the fact that he had always been the strong one, especially when Rafael had left to begin with. Rafael had been struggling, and he knew that, but he hadn’t been able to help. So when he left, Emi had started to fall apart, confused, even as a young adult, about why her dad had left without so much as a word. 

But now Sonny worried every time that Rafael walked out of the door, that it was once again going to be the last time that he saw him leave. That he would once again just walk away and leave them wondering if they would see him again. So whilst he had struggled with everything, he had struggled with that fear of abandonment, and the fear that whenever Emi went to see Rafael it would be the last time that she would call him Dad, he had pretended that he was okay. 

“Emi won’t be home for Christmas. There’s a snowstorm and it’s grounded all flights. From what the weather reports say, Emi’s snowed in. Even if she can come home, she’s going to be stuck isolating,” Sonny replied, as Rafael put down the shopping and looked at him. It was clear to the former Detective that his husband wanted to hug him, but respected his fear of the virus by not invading his space before he had a shower. 

“It’ll be okay, Sonny. She’ll be home and we’ll still have a Christmas with her. It might just be a little different than normal,” Rafael reassured him, his hands inching out to take a hold of him. But he stopped and looked down. “I’m going to go for a shower, then we will talk about this. But don’t worry about Emi and not coming home yet.” and with his comment made, Rafael turned and started to walk towards the bathroom. 

“I’ll sort the shopping!” Sonny called after him. It would be something to distract him. He needed something to focus on so that he didn’t end up panicking and thinking about the worse case scenarios. He hated that it was like this. He hated that his family finally had a chance to be back together, but could because of a stupid virius. A virus that his parents and siblings weren’t taking seriously at all, which meant that he wasn’t able to see them this Christmas either. 

The last thing that Emi had ever expected was to wake up and see nothing but white. It was as if a big white, fluffy blanket was covering the landscape around her. It has snowed through the night. So much snow blanketed the ground outside of her room. Now it snowed in New York, it wasn’t as if Emi had never seen snow. In fact she saw it regularly in New York, but never like this. However, Canada had far more snow than Emi had ever seen. Far more than she had ever dreamt of there being.

Snow was common enough in New York, and it wasn’t as if they only got a sprinkling of it. However it was rare for there to be enough snow that it brought New York City to a standstill. But, Emi had seen a fair amount of snow from travelling around America, she’d seen enough of it to know that it was never anything to worry about. Even if this was a lot more than she had ever seen. Afterall, she had never been trapped, unable to go anywhere. 

This was the first time that there was so much snow that she was snowed in. She couldn’t really go anywhere, she couldn’t do what she would normally do. It was too cold to go out and enjoy it, the snow was too deep for her to enjoy it. It was the first time that she had ever been trapped like this, and she hated it. She wanted to go home, but all the flights were cancelled, and even if they weren’t, she would never make it to the airport. 

“Emi, are you okay?” The voice of her fellow dancer pulled her attention away from the snow. She and Alexis had become good friends through the fact that they had been forced to room together, it was a good friendship made out of necessity. Emi would happily admit that under normal circumstances, she and Alexis would never have become friends, they would never have gotten along in the slightest. 

“Si, sorry, yeah, I’m okay,” Emi answered, as her eyes drew back towards the snow. She loved the look of the snow and how beautiful it looked, but she also hated it. She wanted to be making her way to the airport and then back to New York, she wanted to spend this Christmas with her Papi and her Dad. 

It had felt like it had been ages since she had had a Christmas with both her Papi and her Dad. It had been ages when she thought about it. She was an adult now, she knew that, but this was the first time that her dad and Papi had been together for Christmas since before her Papi had left the District Attorney’s office. Every Christmas since, her dad had insisted that she had Christmas with her Papi and to ensure that she did, he volunteered to work the Christmas day shifts for SVU. 

She understood why, honestly she knew why he did it, but at times she couldn’t help but think that her dad was the world's biggest idiot. He had been her dad for so long that there was no question of the fact anymore, but he still insisted on the fact that he wasn’t, that he had no right to have all of her attention on the holidays just because he was still in New York whilst her Papi was in another state. It was as if he thought that because he and her Papi weren’t really together anymore, he couldn’t claim that Emi was his daughter anymore. But everything was finally going back to normal, or well as normal as anything can be in the current climate and circumstances. 

Her fathers had gotten back together only a few months ago when her Papi returned to New York and started to practice law again, but this time as a Defense Attorney. It had driven Emi up the wall, she had never moved out of home, the flat that her Papi and her dad had raised her in, mainly because she spent most of her year travelling for dance. But with both of her fathers back in the city, but neither knowing that the other was there, Emi had to travel back and forth between them. Living with her dad whilst visiting her Papi, being unable to go elsewhere due to the pandemic. 

But slowly, whilst the current went mad, restrictions were lifted and Emi got back to dancing and travelling. She had been in Canada when her dad realised that her Papi was back in the city and practicing law. And to be honest, she was glad not to have been there, because whilst they finally spoke about everything and sorted out if they wanted a relationship, it couldn’t have been easy on either of them. But they had both sounded so happy during their last facetime with her, when they said that they couldn’t wait for them to celebrate Christmas together, as family, like they hadn’t done for years. 

“Are you sure?” Alexis asked as the Canadian leant back against her headboard without so much as a second glance at the snow outside. The fact that they were snowed in didn’t bother her, she was used to the weather and unlike her roommate, she had nowhere to be. 

“It was supposed to be the first Christmas with both my dad and my Papi, but I’m not going to make it home now. I’ve never seen this much snow, I’ve never been snowed in before, and I used to think it would be really cool, but now I just hate it.” And that was what it all came down to. Emi was snowed in and couldn’t get home to her fathers. All she would have would be a facetime call in a couple of hours and then again on Christmas day. 

Both Sonny and Emi froze as they stepped into the living room. It was the 29th of December, Christmas had been four days earlier, but Emi had been forced to isolate having just managed to travel back from Canada. It had made for a very boring and unfortunate day for the entire Caruso-Barba household. 

Now normally Christmas was a big deal for Sonny and Emi but due to the circumstances neither had wanted to celebrate. That was something that Rafael couldn’t blame them for. Because whilst he wasn’t a fan of Christmas and could take it or leave it, he knew that it was never the same without being with your family, and that was why he had planned this. He just finished that his husband and his daughter would give some sort of reaction so that he could know that it was the right thing to do. 

“Papì? What is this?” Emi asked as she looked around the living again. Her eyes danced from the Christmas tree, to the stockings on the wall, to the fact that there was a pile of blankets on the couch like there used to be, the last time they had a Christmas as a family. 

“It’s Christmas. It’s our Christmas,” Rafael answered as he walked towards his daughter who looked confused and his husband who looked ready to explode in excitement. “None of us have anything to do today, we didn’t get a Christmas Day because Emi had to isolate and it didn’t feel right. So I thought we’d do it today, together.” 

  
  



End file.
